The Intern review

What happens when you get bored with retirement? According to The Intern, starring Anne Hathaway and Robert DeNiro, you suit up and go to work for free in an e-commerce start-up. The Intern is not a film about the relative merits (or otherwise) of expecting graduates to cheerfully accept zero pay contracts as their first industry job – it is a light-hearted comedy, after all…

When it comes to warning signs for movies, I tend to find that the slow pan down to set the scene is a little bit of a red light and loud klaxon cliché. Once upon a time I saw a very bad film about Tennis starring that guy in ER who also lived in a geodesic dome in Alaska. I am pretty sure that it did the pan down and search, although this may just a nerve memory based on my sense of tumbling doom at watching a tennis movie…

The Intern, thankfully, did not fill me with impending dread. This largely comes down to the likeability of the two main characters. Hathaway does the horrifically micro-managing boss of the start-up which is running away from her, and it’s believable – from the cycling in the office to the disconnect from her employees fun-at-work moments. DeNiro, has matured into the distinguished grand old man role over the last few years. He is infinitely more likeable here than as the black-ops in-law of the Fockers series.

Writer/director, Nancy Meyers has decent form in the light-hearted not quite rom-com sphere and The Intern manages to balance character narrative with some relatively believable comedy moments. The scene with the mis-sent email, does perhaps not work as well as it could due to a reliance on some out of context slap-stick but when the comedy is more knowing – DeNiro pulling faces in the mirror – then there are ticks in the right “meta” boxes.

Every start-up business has to have an office bike.

There are a couple of sub-plots that drive The Intern along at a pleasant pace but the main story is one of remembering self-worth. There is a genuine screen warmth between Hathaway and DeNiro that doesn’t seem forced and there is nothing overtly harrowing taking place that forces you worry too much. Having seen 4 nervy films in a row in the last week and a bit, this was a happy distraction – A filmic version of a skinny-caramel-latte with sweetener not sugar – and that is no bad thing.

Bonus points are awarded for an appearance of Rene Russo although these may be rescinded by the annoyingly Brooklyn hipster beard of Hathaway’s husband.*

(*I’m fairly sure the characters had actual names but they seemed largely irrelevant to the story)

John was very traumatised in a previous life by utterly sh*te films with Kiki Dee soundtracks. He has bought quinoa in the past and today visited a Waitrose – it was very white, aged and undoubtedly middle-class. He has been an intern and very much enjoyed the free pizza.